Stress tends to creep up on us. Our busy lives, work, family or relationship pressures, illness, and financial worries all take their toll, leading to us having trouble sleeping. Often we find ourselves tossing and turning at night, unable to switch off our brains and struggling to sleep.

And, of course, the more we stress about not being able to sleep, the harder and harder it is to switch off. So, by the time morning comes, we’re often more tired than when we went to bed!

Around one in three people suffer from trouble sleeping at some point in their lives, including difficulty falling asleep, waking up during the night or waking up early in the morning. Chronic insomnia can lead to constant fatigue, lack of motivation, irritability, reduced problem-solving skills, inability to cope with stress, reduced immunity and weight gain. Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. So, it’s very important to get a good night’s sleep!

Sleep, and in particular REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, the phase of sleep when dreaming occurs, is our biological mechanism for reducing stress levels. Sadly, for one reason or another, REM is restricted to about 20% of our sleep patterns. If you’re overstressed, then you quickly use up your REM quota, and as a result you may find yourself waking up in the middle of the night. And often you can’t get back to sleep again.

By using solution focused techniques, I can help you break this unwanted pattern of stress and trouble sleeping. By helping you deal effectively with any problems or anxieties that are underlying the situation, and using hypnosis – a contrived state of ‘daydreaming’ – to help relax the mind, solution focused hypnotherapy can help you get a good night’s sleep, and get you back to a happier, calmer, more relaxed pattern of life.

If you’d like to know more about how solution focused hypnotherapy can help you stress less and sleep better, please contact me.